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Monthly Archives: May 2013

London, UK – British Muslims fear they could become “sitting targets” for far-right violence following a spate of attacks on mosques and a spike in other reported hate incidents in the week since the murder of a British soldier on a London street.

The most serious attack occurred in the east coast town of Grimsby on Sunday night when three petrol bombs were thrown at a mosque as a meeting was taking place inside.

Other attacks were reported on mosques in the southern towns of Braintree and Gillingham within hours of last Wednesday’s killing.

Campaigners for French regional language rights have called on UNESCO to grant them “cultural asylum” and accused the French state of systematic linguistic discrimination amid growing concern for the future of languages such as Breton and Occitan.

Adrien Niyonshuti is quietly spoken, naturally unassuming, and not a man to seek the spotlight – which only makes the circumstances of his past two visits to London all the more remarkable.

Team Rwanda during filming for “Rising From Ashes” [Courtesy Robb Aaron Gordon]

Last year Niyonshuti carried the flag for Rwanda at the opening ceremony of the 2012 Olympics, in recognition of his becoming the first cyclist from the African nation to qualify for the Games.

And on Thursday night, a London crowd gave him a standing ovation once again, this time inside a Leicester Square cinema at the European premiere of Rising From Ashes, a feature-length documentary that tells the extraordinary story of Team Rwanda, a professional cycling team that is challenging preconceptions of a country still traumatised by the genocide of 1994.